John Stevenson MP for Carlisle is a member of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee. It shadows the Cabinet Office and recently met with the Secretary of State Michael Gove.
This week the committee is meeting with Professor Ian Diamond, the national statistician and Ed Humpherson Director General for Regulation UK Statistics Authority. The meeting is concentrating on the ONS mortality data with reference to Coronavirus. The committee will be questioning the individuals on the collection of data and what it means for Government policy, particularly dealing with the virus within the hospitals and care homes, but also policies towards coming out of the lockdown.
John Stevenson MP said
“The Committee is concentrating much of its efforts on the Coronavirus issues and questioning how well the Government is dealing with aspects of the crisis and what their likely future policies will be as we come out of the lockdown.
This week we are looking at the statistical issues covering the virus and in particular, selection of data from both hospitals and care homes and the regional variations.
This is very relevant to Carlisle and Cumbria where we have been particularly badly hit by the virus. This can demonstrate that there are regional variations and therefore policies relating to us leaving the lockdown could be varied depending on the particular circumstances of different parts of the country.”